“Government commissions are always set up to cover up or hide government incompetence or maliciousness once exposed. And who has the president tasked with setting up this NSA spying review group? The same guy who lied to Congress about NSA spying in the first place!” says Daniel McAdams.

Government commissions are always set up to cover up or hide government incompetence or maliciousness once exposed. They are put together when the government fails spectacularly — as on 9/11 — and they are staffed with government insiders who can be trusted to not dig too deeply into government responsibility for its own failures or even its lawlessness. Look on the board of any government commission and you will always see the consummate insiders like Lee Hamilton.

Rarely is anyone fired for the mistakes made, ( they usually get a promotion) and the conclusions always involve setting up more reform commissions and review boards to employ the multitude of government/quasi-government revolving door beneficiaries who populate the rarefied air of posh suburban settlements like McLean and Great Falls.

Sometimes these government CYA commissions can be quite comical, as Zero Hedge’s Tyler Durden points out in a recent article. In the case of Durden’s piece, the title says it all:

“As Head Of NSA Review Group Obama Appoints Same Person Who ‘Apologized’ For Lying To Congress”

President Obama announced to great Beltway fanfare late last week that he was setting up a commission to review the policies and procedures of the NSA. This was announced as part of a larger reform of NSA surveillance that the president promised, including inserting an adversarial “privacy rights” voice in the secret FISA Court proceedings.

And…who has the president tasked with setting up this NSA spying review group? The same guy who lied to Congress about NSA spying in the first place!

We can only guess who might be appointed as the FISA Court’s “privacy rights” advocate — maybe Diane Feinstein?